Friday, December 19, 2008 [ manilatimes.net ]
The Board of Investments (BOI) on Wednesday granted tax incentives and other perks to five projects involving the production of biofuels, operation of a wakeboarding resort facility, expansion of a furniture exporter and two mass housing ventures.
The projects are worth over P4.2 billion in investments, with the bioethanol production complex contributing the most at P3.298 billion. The facility would be put up by the Cavite Biofuel Producers Inc. in Sitio Lobo-lobo, Barangay Caluangan, Magallanes, Cavite. According to BOI, Cavite Biofuel Producers would construct an integrated bioethanol manufacturing plant and power cogeneration facility with production capacity of 36 million liters of bioethanol a year. The resulting electrical output of five megawatts would supply the energy requirement of the manufacturing plant as the company said it would neither buy electricity from the grid nor sell to the grid.
BOI said it granted this project pioneer status as it would produce non-conventional fuel using as feedstock domestic raw materials such as locally grown sugarcane, molasses, remelted sugar, bagasse (a residual pulp produced from sugar milling process) and also methane. This investment would begin commercial operations in November 2010 and would generate 218 jobs.
BOI also awarded pioneer status to VG Puyat Lifestyle Corp., a subsidiary of the VG Puyat Group, for its P504-million wakeboarding facility development dubbed Silang Wakeboard Park on a 12-hectare track of land in Barangay Kaong and Barangay Munting Ilog Area, Silang, Cavite. Fifty-nine employees would be hired when commercial operations start in August next year.
Meanwhile, Johndorf Ventures Corp.’s 556-unit mass-housing project called The Bellevue worth P256,429,700 in Barangay Upper Carmen, Cagayan de Oro City, would hire 75 workers when commercial operations commence in January next year.
Tax perks were given to Convergence Realty and Development Corp. for its P150-million housing venture named Bougainvilla Homes Subdivision Phase II. For this project, 456 low-cost units would be constructed on 1.819 hectares of land in Barangay Bañadero, Calamba, Laguna. It would create 280 jobs when commercial operations begin next month.-- Ben Arnold O. de Vera
